Academic honesty is a core value of the University. The University requires students to act honestly, ethically and with integrity in their dealings with the University, its members, members of the public and others. The University is opposed to and will not tolerate academic dishonesty or plagiarism, and will treat all allegations of academic dishonesty or plagiarism seriously.

The University’s Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy 2012 and associated Procedures are available for reference on the University Policy Register at http://sydney.edu.au/policies (enter “Academic Dishonesty” in the search field). The Policy applies to the academic conduct of all students enrolled in a coursework award course at the University.

Under the terms and definitions of the Policy,

• “academic dishonesty” means “seeking to obtain or obtaining academic advantage (including in the assessment or publication of work) by dishonest or unfair means or knowingly assisting another student to do so.
• “plagiarism” means “presenting another person’s work as one’s own work by presenting, copying or reproducing it without appropriate acknowledgement of the source.”

The presentation of another person’s work as one’s own without appropriate acknowledgement is regarded as plagiarism, regardless of the author’s intentions. Plagiarism can be classified as negligent (negligent plagiarism) or dishonest (dishonest plagiarism).

An examiner who suspects academic dishonesty or plagiarism by a student must report the suspicion to a nominated academic in the relevant faculty. If the nominated academic concludes that the student has engaged in dishonest plagiarism or some other sufficiently serious form of academic dishonesty, the matter may be referred to the Registrar for further disciplinary action under the terms of the Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy 2012 and Chapter 8 of the University of Sydney By-Law 1999 (as amended).

Students should be aware that written assignments submitted in this Unit of Study will be submitted to similarity detecting software known as Turnitin. The detection and identification of work that may be suspected of plagiarism is an academic judgment for the unit coordinator, and similarity detecting software is one of the tools that an examiner or marker may use to inform a decision that plagiarism has occurred.

Turnitin searches for matches between text in your written assessment task and text sourced from the Internet, published works and assignments that have previously been submitted to Turnitin for analysis. It produces an originality report showing matches with various sources, and an overall level of match or similarity index. There will always be some degree of text-matching when using Turnitin. These are caused by the use of direct quotations, technical terms and phrases, and the listing of bibliographic material. This does not mean you will automatically be accused of plagiarism.

Further information about Turnitin is available at http://sydney.edu.au/arts/current_students/plagiarism_and_turnitin.shtml.

You can apply for an extension, a special consideration (SC) or special arrangement (SA) for any of the written work in this class. You do not need to state a detailed reason for why you need a simple extension; it is OK to say, “I am not feeling well” or “I have another essay due this week.” For SC and SA, you must follow the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences policy. The Faculty assesses student requests for assistance relating to completion of assessment in accordance with the regulations set out in the University Assessment Policy 2011 and Assessment Procedures 2011. Students are expected to become familiar with the University’s policies and Faculty procedures relating to Special Consideration and Special Arrangements.

Students can apply for:

• Special Consideration - for serious illness or misadventure
• Special Arrangements - for essential community commitments
• Simple Extension - an extension of up to 5 working days for non-examination based assessment tasks on the grounds of illness or misadventure.

Further information on special consideration policy and procedures is available on the Faculty website at http://sydney.edu.au/arts/current_students/special_consideration.shtml.

The Faculty’s Student Administration Manual is available for reference at the “Current Students” section of the Faculty Website (http://sydney.edu.au/arts/current_students/). Most day-to-day issues you encounter in the course of completing this Unit of Study can be addressed with the information provided in the Manual. It contains detailed instructions on processes, links to forms and guidance on where to get further assistance.